Lessons Olympian Shaun White Can Teach You About Money and Life

Looking for words of wisdom from a professional snowboarder isn’t the place that people think t look when it comes to ways of bettering their finances. Then again, there are a number of things about saving money that you can learn from Olympic athletes, and Shaun White isn’t just any Olympian. He’s competing in Sochi, Russia for his third Olympic games with the hopes of bringing back 2 gold medals to add to the golds he won in the 2006 and 2010 winter games.

Below you’ll find a number of Shaun White quotes that can teach you important lessons about money and life in general:

“I remember thinking that I’d way rather give my parents my money, and not have to like have them go to work anymore, you know what I mean. Because I’d way rather spend more time with them.”

Money is not the goal in itself, but to be used for the things that you most value. Shaun values time with his family, and he uses his money so that he’s able to spend more time with them. Understanding what’s important to you can help you use your money to achieve those things that make you happiest. Not understanding what’s important means that you will spend money on things that you think will make you happy, but probably won’t.

“My friends ask me why I still live with my family, but I feel comfortable there. We’ve all been through so much together.”

You don’t have to buy into a lifestyle that others think you should have. While his friends wonder why Shaun doesn’t buy a large place for himself, he feels that being with his family is the most comfortable place for him to be. By resisting what others feel you should do, and doing those things that are correct for you, you end up being in charge of your life rather than the expectations of others.

“Every time I’ve had a bad performance at an event, I’ve come back more determined and focused.”

We all have bad days. It’s how we react to those bad days that determines whether we learn for it and make ourselves stronger, or let the setback define us from that point forward. Even the best in the world have an off day, but they use that bad day as motivation to make themselves even better.

“I’m just going to keep dialing it in and keep practicing.”

You don’t become an elite athlete without a lot of time and dedication put into practicing. It takes practicing day in and day out over a long period of time to reach your goals, and even when you reach that point, you still need to practice to remain at the top. Things don’t come easy. They come from a lot of continual practice and effort.

“If you do a trick and it doesn’t work out, that can stick with you. I like to go back, nail the trick, and, ‘OK, I’m cool, it’s all good.'”

When something goes wrong, don’t quit or give up. Get right back and try again until you are able to do what you want. Again, failure is not an excuse to quit, but a reason to refine what is being done so that the goal can be accomplished.

“What drives me now is the fact that I feel like I still have so many tricks that I want to learn and so many things that I can still do. And so many cool things outside of sports that I have been doing.”

You need to find the drive to keep going even when you have accomplished the original goals that you have set for yourself. By always looking for new ways to make yourself better, you continue to improve yourself. This can also open doors to new areas you may want to explore and challenge yourself.

M. Butler enjoys snowboarding and looking for inspiration from the best in the sport. She plans to watch and cheer the athletes in the coming winter Olympic games.